Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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12. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he has initiated contingency planning to prevent damage to Ireland’s enterprise sector in the event of Britain withdrawing from the European Union, or in the case of the All-Ireland economy. [2066/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The EU-UK question is a strategic priority for Government, and for my Department. This is because UK membership of the Union is hugely important both to Ireland’s interests, and to the interests of a stable, successful and prosperous EU as a whole. The Government’s overriding focus is on helping to keep the UK in the Union, not preparing for its departure.

Work has been underway across Government Departments, including my own, for some time to ensure we best understand the various issues at stake.

The Department of the Taoiseach also plays a leading role, given the whole-of-government dimension. In this context, last May, a unit was established in the Department of the Taoiseach, specifically dealing with British-Irish and Northern Ireland affairs.

The Department of Finance, for example, commissioned the research published last November by the Economic and Social Research Institute on Irish-British macroeconomic links in the context of our joint EU membership.

We know from this and various other published assessments that there are very significant strategic and economic risks for Ireland if the UK were to leave the EU. The best way to mitigate these risks is to play a constructive role in the negotiations that lie ahead, working with the British Government and all our EU partners so as to find a consensual basis for the UK’s continued membership of the Union.

Given the importance of the enterprise sector of this issue, both IDA and Enterprise Ireland are factoring this issue into their own contingency planning and are tracking where potential impacts may arise.

Enterprise Ireland already has a significant number of programmes available to companies who face competitive threats from various sources. There include Lean Programmes, Market Diversification, Innovation and Management Development. These will be the tools available to assist companies with planning and preparation.